Jamie Dimon lobbied for Dodd-Frank change in spending bill

J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, pictured in 2012, did some personal lobbying over the spending bill.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Erasing a key provision of the Dodd-Frank law was so important to banks that J.P. Morgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon personally urged lawmakers to vote for a spending bill making the change.

Democrats were outraged by the derivatives provision, which would allow banks to make risky investments using taxpayer-backed money. As the Washington Post writes, it was perhaps more outrageous to Democrats that the language appeared to come directly from lobbyists at the nation’s biggest banks. A person familiar with the lobbying told the Post Dimon himself made calls before the House passed the bill Thursday. Late Thursday, Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, told reporters that the J.P. Morgan
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CEO played a role in the bill. “I think we got hurt when Jamie Dimon and the president started to whip,” she said.

The Senate is due to vote on the bill Friday or Saturday.

Warren wing rises: The stand taken in Thursday’s spending bill drama by the Elizabeth Warren wing of populist Democrats will reverberate next year inside the Capitol and on the presidential campaign trail, according to a separate article in the Washington Post. The anti-Wall Street faction nearly took down a bill to fund the federal government in a revolt over the Dodd-Frank derivatives provision. It ultimately failed, but Massachusetts Sen. Warren showed this week that she holds significant sway within her party in Congress. She’s also an increasing wild card in the 2016 presidential race, though she has repeatedly denied interest in a White House bid.

How Wall Street got its way: Politico writes that Wall Street’s strategy on weakening the Dodd-Frank provision in the spending bill involved slowly building bipartisan support. Lobbyists worked with lawmakers on a standalone House bill, touting its vote tallies as evidence the change had ample support. Last year, 70 Democrats voted in favor of a bill that would weaken the provision. It was only this year, however, that focus shifted to working the issue through the annual appropriations process, where must-pass bills can help carry policy provisions into law.

Enter Joe Biden:Joe Biden may be one of the winners from an otherwise big loss in the midterm elections for Democrats. But, as National Journal writes, it remains to be seen whether the White House will let him off the bench and into the game. Biden is in a unique position to serve as a broker between President Obama and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and help locate the common ground Obama has talked about since the midterms. The vice president has been more or less on the legislative sidelines since fall 2013, when Reid reportedly shut him out of talks to end a government shutdown. But there are signs Biden is about to get involved again: Thursday, he was personally making calls to cajole reluctant House Democrats into voting for the massive government funding bill.

Bush’s financial optics: A spokeswoman for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says his investments would not be an obstacle as Bush continues to mull a presidential bid. The spokeswoman’s comments, reports CNN, came in response to a report that Bush recently took financial steps that private-equity experts consider unusual for someone considering a run for president. A Bloomberg Businessweek report says Bush is the chairman and manager of a new offshore private equity fund that raised $61 million in September. That kind of fund can shield investors from having to pay U.S. taxes.

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